490 NOAA First U.S. Commissioner National Marine Fishery Bulletin established 1881 of Fisheries and founder Fisheries Service of Fishery Bulletin Abstract—Age, growth, and monthly reproductive characteristics were Demographic profile of an overexploited determined for the orange-spotted serranid, the orange-spotted grouper grouper (Epinephelus coioides) from northern Oman. This species is char- (Epinephelus coioides), from northern Oman acterized by a prevalence of females (1–11 years old), and males make up 1,2 6.5% of the total sample. Growth pa- Jennifer L. McIlwain rameters indicate a typical pattern Aisha Ambu-ali1 for groupers with a low growth co- Nasr Al Jardani1 efficient (K=0.135). The trajectory of 3 the von Bertalanffy growth function Andrew. R. Halford was almost linear with no evidence Hamed S. Al-Oufi4 of asymptotic growth. Estimates of David A. Feary (contact author)5 mortality revealed a low natural mortality of 0.14/year but a high Email address for contact author: [email protected] fishing mortality of 0.59/year. More alarming was the high rate of exploi- 1 Department of Marine Science and Fisheries 4 tation (0.81/year), considered unsus- Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences tainable for a slow-growing grouper. P.O. Box 1700, Muscat 111 Sultan Qaboos University The population off southern Oman Sultanate of Oman P.O. Box 34, Al-Khod 123 is diandric protogynous, and sex 5 School of Life Sciences Sultanate of Oman change takes place between 449 and University of Nottingham 748 mm in total length (TL) or over 2 Department of Environment and Agriculture University Park a period of 4–8 years. The gonadoso- Faculty of Science and Engineering Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom matic index for females showed a Curtin University short spawning season from March G.P.O Box U1987 through May, although ~30% of fe- Perth, Western Australia 6487, Australia males were ripe for 7 months of the 3 Marine Science Program year. Size and age at 50% maturity Department of Parks and Wildlife for females was estimated to be 580 Dick Perry Avenue mm TL and 4 years, respectively. We Kensington, Western Australia 6151, Australia suggest that substantial changes in the management of this species will be vital in sustaining viable popula- tions of orange-spotted grouper and other species of Epinephelidae with- The recent increase in demographic managers, especially in developing in Oman. analyses of economically important countries where life history informa- reef fish stocks from the Indo-Pacific tion is rarely collected (Polunin et region has made a major contribution al., 1996), mostly because of a lack of to our understanding of key popula- funding. The presence of these traits tion parameters (Ferreira and Russ, may also explain why conventional 1992; Newman et al., 1996; Russ et fisheries management practices have al., 1996; Adams et al., 2000; Grand- failed, even for sectors that are regu- court, 2002, 2005; Williams et al., lated (Coleman et al., 2000; Sadovy 2003; Pears et al., 2006). What has de Mitcheson et al., 2013). emerged is increasing evidence that The epinepheline serranids, or many exploited reef fish species have groupers, form an important taxo- Manuscript submitted 14 July 2015. life history strategies of extended nomic group both from a commercial Manuscript accepted 21 July 2016. life spans, slow growth, and, in the and ecological perspective (Sluka et Fish. Bull. 114:490–502 (2016). absence of fishing, an accumulation al., 2001; Sadovy de Mitcheson et Online publication date: 13 Sept. 2016. of older individuals—strategies usu- al., 2013). However, a suite of life doi: 10.7755/FB.114.4.10 ally associated with species in tem- history strategies and certain be- The views and opinions expressed or perate (10–25°C) and deep (>30 m) havioral traits make most species of implied in this article are those of the waters (Choat and Robertson, 2002; grouper susceptible to overfishing. author (or authors) and do not necessarily Pears et al., 2006; Wakefield et al., Life-history strategies include slow reflect the position of the National 2013, 2015). Stocks that have such growth and late-onset reproduction Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. traits present challenges for fisheries (Manooch, 1987; Pears et al., 2006), McIlwain et al.: Demographic profile of Epinephelus coloides in northern Oman 491 long life spans (Manooch, 1987; Bullock et al., 1992; Musandam Peninsula, inhabiting deep rocky reefs to Grandcourt, 2005; Wakefield et al., 2015), complex and depths of 100 m (Randall, 1995). Fishermen that target variable reproductive patterns (Shapiro, 1987; Fen- this species use semicircular wire basket traps with, a nessy and Sadovy, 2002; Rhodes and Sadovy, 2002) in- radius of 2.5–3.5 m, and 35-mm wire-mesh. Traps are cluding sex change, while traits include a propensity deployed either from fiberglass boats of 4–10 m in over- to aggregate during spawning (Colin, 1992; Sadovy et all length (and an average of 28 traps were deployed al., 1994; Samoilys and Squire, 1994; Robinson et al., per trip at an average water depth of 70 m) or from 2015; Tuz-Sulub and Brulé 2015), and a high degree of large wooden dhows <25 m overall length (and an av- site fidelity (Zeller and Russ, 1998; Starr et al., 2007; erage of 75 traps were deployed per trip at an average Luckhurst, 2008). water depth of 150 m) (senior author, unpubl. data). To Frequently published low values of natural mor- date, there are no restrictions on fishing effort for this tality (M) for grouper indicate that harvesting levels fishery, and therefore no limits on the numbers or size should be set at less than 10% of the total biomass of orange-spotted grouper landed by fishermen. The (Walters and Pearse, 1996; Coleman et al., 2000). How- official fisheries statistics reveal that catches of grou- ever, low rates of M coupled with commonly cited low per from Musandam have remained steady since 1993 rates of growth can also lead to “growth overfishing” at an average of 370 metric tons (t) per year (MAF1). with resultant truncated size-distributions as fish are This catch represents 10.5% of the total landings of unable to grow to their maximum sizes (e.g. Beverton grouper for Oman from 1993 to 2009 (MAF1). On the and Holt 1957). It has also been suggested that popula- basis of the total landings of grouper in Musandam, tions in which sex change is predominately female to the orange-spotted grouper is the thirdmost important male, under a scenario of increased fishing mortality species of grouper by numbers and secondmost impor- (F), lose reproductive capacity in 2 ways: through selec- tant by weight (senior author, unpubl. data). tive removal of larger, mostly male individuals that in Despite the importance of orange-spotted grouper turn cause sperm limitation (Coleman et al., 1996) and to both the southeast Asian aquacultural industry and a decrease in the size of females that in turn reduces the trade of live reef fish (Grandcourt, 2012), little de- total fecundity (Sadovy, 1996; Adams et al., 2000; Sa- mographic or reproductive information exists on wild dovy de Mitcheson and Liu, 2008). stocks from throughout its geographic range (but see Hermaphroditism in groupers can be expressed in Grandcourt et al., 2005, 2009), with recent calls by the 1 of 2 ways: as simultaneous, when individuals are ca- International Union for Conservation of Nature and pable of reproducing as both male and female, or se- Natural Resources for further work that would ex- quential (the most common mode), when sex change is amine the demography and life history of this species made from female to male (protogyny) (Smith, 1965; (Cornish and Harmelin-Vivien, 2004). The earliest re- Shapiro, 1987; DeMartini et al., 2011; Wakefield et al., productive study produced some evidence of sex change 2015). Protogynous populations can be further char- through social control, but it did so for only a few in- acterized on the basis of the sexual pathway of male dividuals (n=6) kept in captivity (Quinitio et al., 1997). development. Monandric protogyny occurs when males More recently, Grandcourt et al. (2005, 2009), focusing develop only from females (secondary males) through on populations within the southern Arabian Gulf, and a transitional phase, whereas diandric protogyny in- Liu and Sadovy de Mitcheson (2009), through a con- volves 2 pathways for male development: directly from trolled experiment of hatchery-reared juvenile orange- juveniles (primary males) or through sex change from spotted grouper, confirmed diandric protogyny. mature females (Reinboth, 1967). To date, most grou- The lack of basic biological data on orange-spotted per investigated in detail and that belong to the genus grouper from the Oman region, the recent anecdotal Epinephelus have been confirmed to be monandric her- evidence of declines in landings, and concerns over the maphrodites (Sadovy et al., 1994; Brulé et al., 2000; spread of the trade of live reef fish into the west Indian Pears et al., 2006; DeMartini et al., 2011; Wakefield et Ocean prompted the work described here to determine al., 2015). However, increasing evidence indicates that the demographic makeup of orange-spotted grouper in some species are diandric hermaphrodites, such as the Oman and to characterize the sexuality and spawning catface grouper (Epinephelus andersoni) (Fennessy and times of this species.. Specifically, we set out to de- Sadovy, 2002), and Sadovy and Colin (1995) confirmed scribe the age structure, growth parameters, and mor- gonochorism, with the potential for protogynous sex tality schedules of the population from northern Oman. change, in the Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus). In light of the heavy fishing pressure on this species Clearly, the genus shows sexual plasticity in reproduc- both in Oman and neighboring countries (Grandcourt tive development, which has a bearing on population et al., 2005, 2009), we also discuss potential manage- persistence and fisheries management.